Henderson hopeful on fitness for World Cup semi-final

Ryan Allen |Tuesday, July 10, 2018

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World Cup 2018 Henderson came off in the 85th minute against Sweden

The small European country have some tidy players, including Luka Modric, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic. As we regroup, he turns to me and says, "right that's enough, time to lift the tempo, let's get about them".

But he is certainly well aware of the threat that Croatia pose in the centre of the field.

Strong, mobile, indefatigable and good in the air, Mandzukic looks to make life as hard as possible for the defence, stretching play to allow the likes of Modric the space they need to get into the danger zone around the box.

"So we'll see. There are two very good teams playing well and it's going to be an interesting match".

Having failed to find the net for the first time at the World Cup in England's victory over Sweden, Harry Kane will be eager to return to form against Croatia in Wednesday's semi-final clash.

England progressed to the last four of football's flagship tournament for the first time since 1990 with a 2-0 win over Sweden on Saturday while Croatia advanced by overcoming hosts Russian Federation on penalties.

But Southgate thinks talk of that handing a physical advantage to England is being overplayed.

Despite a comfortable run through their group, Croatia has had a tougher ride in the knockout rounds, needing extra time and penalties to eliminate both Denmark in the round of 16 and then hosts Russian Federation in the last four. So we'll just have to assess people as we go. "It is a game that is very evenly matched, we know what we want to do and we have to focus on our preparation and make sure that we control the controllables as we have attempted to do for every game", the manager said.

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